Electric vapor apparatus.



C. 0. BASTIAN. ELECTRIC VAPOR APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED no. 5, 191a] 1 1 1 0,608, Patented Sept. 15, 1914,

WITNESSES INVENTOR 4M1 M l 44% BY M h? ATTORNEYv T TABS PATENT FFlQED CHARLES ORME BASTIAN, OF LONDON, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR TO COOPER HEWITT ELECTRIC COMPANY, QF'HOIBOKEN, NEl/V JERSEY, A. CORPORATION OF NEVJ JERSEY.

Specification. of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 13, 1914.

Original application filed January 27, 1913, Serial No. 744,306. Divided and this application filed December T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Crnuznns ORME BAsrun, a subject of the King of Great Britain, and resident of London, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in or Relating to Electric Vapor Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has for its object improvements in or relating to vapor electric apparatus, especially lamps of the character known as vapor electric lamps. Such lamps are provided with a transparent tube containing electrodes,- both of which are usually of some volatilizable material, such as mer- Jury. The luminous portion of the tube is for irin li ht or for an other uriose such as rectifying or rupturing electric circuits.

lVith all classes of mercury vapor lamps or other electric apor apparatus it frequently happens that a small quantity of air 01' other g: remains within the container or occluded in the mercury after the lamp has been scaled, and taken off the pump but according to this part of my present invention I form or arrange in any suitable position on the lamp an enlargement or trap into which the air may be transferred by careful manipulation and retained there by solid mercury which latter may form one of the electrodes, and the air thus trapped is thereby prevented from getting into the arc and disarranging the normal operation of the latter. If the said enlargement or trap be attached to the top of the anode (or cathode) it serves the double purpose of a cushion for the mercury in such electrode forcing the mercury back when the circuit is broken and preventing it from sticking in the tube.

Referring to the accompanying drawingsz Figurc 1 shows a burner arranged approximately in a circular form with enlargement or bulb at each end of the cir- Serial No. 8%,819.

or bulbs 6* f* located outside the path of the arc stream. In this arrangement the mercury lies right around the tube (1. (before the lamp is started) so to normally connect the electrodes 0 and and advantageously a small bore tube is used with sullicient mercury to normally fill said tube in order to cmincct the two electrodes 0 and lvhen the burner is started by tilting same the mercury is separated at or about centrally between the two electrodes and is caused to run back into each of the respective bulbs c f* and the arc stream extends from or about the region of the electrode e around the circular tube to or near the electrode As the mercury diminishes at the positive electrode 6 and accumulates at or near the electrode the arrangement is such that similar action takes place as before described and the point of equilibrium is reached. at which the respective levels of the electrode surfaces remain constant or prac tically so throughout the operation of the burner.

()n the container tube aand at about midway between the electrodes 6 and fll arrange a small vertical tube 9 terminating in a bulb which is in closed connection with the interior of the said tube so that when the mercury is caused or allowed to pass around the container tube a to connect the electrodes 0 and f as aforesaid part of said mercury will be forced up the tube 9 and form a small head of mercury which (when the burner is tilted to start the same) will cause the mercury, to positively divide at the point immediately below this said small column of mercury and thus insure starting the arc stream in the tube about entrally with respect to the electrodes and this insures the positive starting up of the burner in a regular manner. In the manu- 'l'acturc oi these burners 1 find it advantageous to utilize this vertical column 5/ and enlargement for the purpose of connecting to the vacuum pumps and the subse quent sealing off.

It will be obvious that if desired and where suitable the current may be passed in revcrsc direction through any of ti. burners illustrated. 'lhcrcfore mercury displaced from one electrode owing to the the dil'i'crcncc in heat potential between the electrodes can be replaced with mercury dis- 'trode respectively Without the passa placed in the opposite direction owing to the difference in heat potential between the electrodes and by constructing the .burner so as to utilize this discovery I. am thereby enabled to establish and maintain constant quantities of electrode material at each eleci solid mercury through the arc path.

In the following claim the terms burner and mercury are (for the sake of brevity) respectively used to denote and include any suitable device and any suitable electrode material as hereinbefore defined or explained.

I claim as my invention: Ina burner for a vapor electric apparatus in which volatilizable electrodes are held Within a tube and which when the current is not flowing, there is' a continuous column of mercury filling the tube between the-electrodes, means for breaking the column at a predetermined point and for cushioning the volatilizable material, such means consisting of a chamber located above the tube and connected with the bore of the said tube. 1

Signed at London in the county of Lon-v don England this 18th day of November A. D. 1913.

Witnesses:

TRACY LAY, O. J. WORTH.

CHARLES ORME 'BASTIAN. I 

